Dear Friends,

An early Easter means that Ascension Day, Pentecost (Whitsun) and Trinity Sunday all come early as well - Ascension Day almost makes it into April ! - three festivals that celebrate `who Jesus is` after the miracle of Easter.  Jesus of Nazareth, who walked the earth for nearly forty years, becomes `Jesus the Christ`, who is one with God yet still distinct - which is what the Ascension and the Trinity mean, really.  Trinity because the first Christians came to experience God (and therefore very quickly to speak of God) as `Father, Son and Holy Spirit` - that manifestation of God, and of Jesus the Christ, who entered the Disciples with power on the first Christian Pentecost.

They were looking for this, because Jesus had told them to expect it.  But, like so much that Jesus said to his disciples before the Resurrection, they did not really understand what he truly meant.  And so, at the (Jewish) festival of Pentecost, they were meeting behind closed doors - partly in fear of the authorities, partly out of uncertainty as to what they should do - when all fear and uncertainty was removed for good.  The Holy Spirit entered them with power - it compelled them to go outside, it enabled them to speak to the world about Jesus in a way that people of all nations could understand.  And yet, all too often and all too easily, we still seem to want to meet behind closed doors, to be uncertain what we should do.  It's a natural, human instinct; one that Jesus challenges us constantly to overcome with his help; with faith, with prayer; in love, in hope.

The Holy Spirit challenges us to break down barriers.  The barriers that we like to hide behind - the barriers of fear, of indifference, of riches and poverty, of laziness - and the barriers that we like to set up - "they're different"; "you can't do that"; "you ought to do it this way".  Some people actually set up barriers in the name of the Holy Spirit; now that's perverse !  And the Churches, of course, are past masters at setting up barriers.

But it's not in the nature of the Holy Spirit to do that.  It's in the all-too-human nature of men (and it is usually `men`, not women) to squabble and fall out, to divide rather than to bring together,- and therefore of Churches (and Synagogues, and Mosques)  to fall out with (and within) one another.  But it's not in the nature of the Holy Spirit to do that.  And neither is it in the nature of God.  God, whose very nature - Christians believe - is `three-in-one`; God, who despite all the provocations of men (and women!), despite our arrogance, cruelty, greed, etc., still wants us back - wants us back so much that he will give up his only Son for us.

We celebrate Ascension on Sunday 4^th May; Pentecost on 11^th; Trinity Sunday on 18^th.  Why not break down a barrier or two and come to join us ?  Together, who knows what we and the Holy Spirit might do ?